"This year [the tallying process] just went so quickly, it was unbelievable," said Manisha Bharti '98, one of the council members responsible for overseeing this year's first-year elections. "We'd allocated the whole night to work, but we finished in just a couple of hours."

An additional benefit of computerization, Silberstein said, is that it helps avoid any concern over voter fraud--a problem which had plagued elections in previous years.

Silberstein added that the voting program actually improves the quality of the votes, by allowing students more time to read the candidates' position papers.

"Students had only a minute or so to read a position paper," Silberstein said, referring to when voting was done in dining halls. "This way, voting is available 24 hours a day, and students can look at position papers before voting."

According to the programmer, if campus-wide elections for council offices are to become a reality, computerized voting will most likely be used--and that will mean adapting Silberstein and Kim's program to fill the task.

Outside Computers

Those who work with Silberstein universally commend his dedication to his work.

"It seems like anything he touches kind of turns golden. When he agrees to do something, he really puts his all into it," council member Rudd W. Coffey '97 said. "He's the kind of guy who does the dirty work. Things just wouldn't work without him."

"Everything he's worked on, he's put in 150 percent," Bharti added. "He does so much, but he's never talking about how stressed he is--he just takes it all in stride."

He has also been active in attempting to improve campus life in other ways. He came up with the idea for "Hello Day," a day where students could win prizes by greeting others.

"It was a good idea," said Coffey. "I'm sorry more Harvard students didn't buy into it...He did an amazing job."

In addition to his Harvard related work, Silberstein serves as a site coordinator for Partners for Empowering Neighborhoods (PEN), a program offering nightly adult education classes.

Amahl Bishara, education coordinator for PEN, praises not only Silberstein's dedication, but also his sense of humor.

"Eric is generally incredibly on top of things. He's a blast to work with--really quirky, funny, sort of random. I'm a big fan of Eric's," she said